Ville de Paris
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Original called the “Impétueux, the Ville de Paris a large three-decker French ship of the line. It was Comte de Grasse’s flagship during the American Revolution. Planned in 1757, the Ville de Paris would have 90 gun making it a second rate ship of the line. The ship was completed in 1764.
In 1778, she was granted entry into the American Revolution. Assigned to Comte de Guichem’s fleet as a flagship, she partook in the irresolute Battle of Ushant (1778). Within the next two years, an additional fourteen guns were mounted on the ship giving it a total of one hundred and four guns thus making it a first rate ship of the line. In March 1781, she sailed for the West Indies as a flagship of a fleet of twenty of the line under the Comte de Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal, the Battle of the Chesapeake and the Battle of St. Kitts also as De Grasse’s flagship. The French lost possession of the vessel at the Battle of the Saints on 12th April 1782 to the British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir George Rodney.
Fluctuat nec mergitur, which translates; to “Tossed by the waves, she will no sink” was the motto of the Ville de Paris. However, she did not live up to that name when she sank in September 1782 along with other ships led by Admiral Graves when they were hit by a hurricane near Newfoundland on a journey back to England. A ship of the line of the Royal Navy was named after her: HMS Ville de Paris, launched in 1795.